At Paralympic swim trials in Minneapolis, the friendships are as fierce as the competition
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The University of Minnesota’s Freeman Aquatic Center is dripping with anticipation, talent and athleticism this weekend. Team USA is holding its Paralympic Swimming Trials there to determine who will compete for the team in Paris later this summer.
Three Minnesotans are competing for a spot on the team: Mallory Weggemann of Eagan, Natalie Sims of Edina and Summer Schmit of Stillwater.
For five-time Paralympic medalist Weggemann, this year’s trials are familiar territory. But they also come with a first.
This year, her 16-month-old daughter Charlotte is in the crowd, her eyes locked on her mom who blew kisses from the starting block.
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“Having my daughter in the stands is so special. She gives this entire journey meaning,” Weggemann said. “There’s just so much pride in doing this as a family and gives it all meaning at the end of the day knowing that I go back to that room, and I just get to snuggle and love on my daughter.”
Weggemann isn’t the only one enamored with Charlotte. Throughout the meet on Thursday, an extended family of coaches, teammates and supporters stopped by to meet the growing girl.
This is a community that has watched and looked up to Weggemann for nearly 16 years in the Paralympics. These trials are about more than just placement on the team, they are a celebration of each other and a reunion.
“I really love the people,” said Schmit, who’s competing this week to make her second Paralympics. “Honestly, it keeps me in the sport. Seeing all my friends being able to race against people that I just love is amazing.”
Schmit, 20, was born with a wrist disarticulation and doesn’t have a right hand. She started swimming competitively at age 11. And in Tokyo in 2020, she placed fifth in the 200 meter individual medley.
Her parents have been alongside her throughout it all. And the swimming community Schmit has grown to love, has been home for her mom, Shannon Klint, too.
“Just like for the Olympic road, families are doing much of this work and supporting and friends. But then you have everything else on top of it. She’s got extra appointments, she’s got extra things she needs to do,” Klint said. “When you sit down and you hear other stories in the stands, you become bonded very quickly. And very strongly for like, like there are parents who I am like, I can call them in the middle of the night if I need to.”
Many of these athletes have been training since they first jumped in the water, with careers that have allowed them to compete against, be teammates with and learn from each other.
Natalie Sims, who is a teammate of Schmit’s, said being a part of the Paralympics has “been an honor and a privilege.”
“These are world-class athletes. These are incredible athletes at the absolute top of their game, similar to their Olympic counterparts. And so, these are athletes that have fought for careers to get here and to compete at the very, very pinnacle of their sport,” Kristin Weggemann, Mallory’s sister, said.
The sisters’ love of swimming is truly what links them.
Weggemann said she wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for her sister Kristin, who took her to the Beijing Paralympic Trials in 2008, just months after an epidural shot to treat shingles caused her to lose movement from the waist down.
“The Paralympic movement has been such a life-changing place for me, and so to now come into it and see the growth of the movement has had in the past 16 years and see the impact that it’s had on the field of play and off the field of play has been remarkable,” Mallory Weggemann said. “There’s so many individuals on this pool deck that I’ve had the great honor of getting to know over the years who’ve become dear friends and it keeps growing and we keep getting new athletes.”
Steve Van Dyne has been Weggemann’s Paralympics coach for the past 10 years. He was her former high school swim coach before her disability. He said the lifelong journey of training connects them too.
“It’s a great way to build character, a great way to test yourself. Really challenge yourself to find out who you are, and you know what you can achieve,” Van Dyne said. “And it’s one of those things that anything is possible when you get in the water too, for a lot of these individuals.”
Weggemann, Schmit and Natalie Sims learn Sunday whether they’ll head to Paris with Team USA. Their newest fan Charlotte is sure to be in the crowd when they do.
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